Martin Brandenburg, EMEA managing director at DJI Europe, has highlighted the UK and Switzerland as the world’s most progressive countries when it comes to adopting drones into the sky.

Speaking as part of the opening panel discussion on the first day of this year’s Commercial UAV Show, he said DJI views the authorities in the UK as very ‘forward-thinking’.

A member of the floor posed the question to the DJI director, asking if, in his experience in the role, he has found any countries that are particularly good at adopting new UAV technology and if they are any which he has found more difficult.

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In response, Brandenburg said: “The UK and Switzerland are the two countries where the approach to drones has been the most balanced. We have countries, and I don’t want to finger point and point out any bad examples but for instance Belgium and Austria where it is almost impossible to fly which I do think is understandable because the drone industry has grown so fast.”

He added: “But, in the UK and Switzerland it is clear that the benefits of drones are definitely being seen. The risk in those places was assessed on a fair basis because instead of saying drones are potentially bad, their approach was that drones are very good, but in some areas we would prefer not to see drones which I think is a fair point.”

Brandenburg and the rest of the panel went on to describe how great it was that Switzerland often referred to itself as the ‘home of drones’.

Elsewhere at the this year’s show at the ExCeL in London, CDP released its first print publication.